One Last Thing
by MagicAndMonsters
Summary: One Shot - Phil has to get back to Dan. It's kinda sad I guess.


**Hi, sorry if this is crap I actually started writing it a year ago and never finished it and I found it today and just decided to write the rest of it okay have fun! **

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There should have been a lot of things going through Phil's mind as he jogged down the abandoned streets that lead to Dan's flat. Things like the large cracks in the road that made it extremely hard to not trip over, or the smoking remains of the surrounding buildings that used to stand tall and gleaming over London, or the dozens of broken and abandoned cars that lined the curbs. Things like the ache in his legs from running so long and so far, or the fact that he left his parent's house in the middle of the night without so much as a goodbye letter. Maybe even things like how he never got to finish watching the last season of Game of Thrones, and never got the read the last chapter of the book that he borrowed off his brother. He should have been thinking about the danger of being out on the streets while the world was ending. But he had pushed all of those things out of his mind.

The only thing he was thinking about was Dan.

Dan, his best friend, the only person he wanted to be with when it inevitably ended. So, he had been running for the past few days, trying to get back. It wasn't easy, with nothing to tell him he was going the right way and nothing to tell him how much time he had to get back. But he kept running, ignoring the burning in his lungs and the aching in his feet, driven on by the need to get back to Dan.

He rounded a corner, looking out for anything that could lead him home. But everything around him was broken and burnt, and he recognised nothing. Every new street he turned down was no help. He just wanted a street sign, a landmark, something to tell him where he was, and which direction he needed to go in. As hours passed it grew darker, yet no stars came out, as had been the same for months now. The sky just turned a darker shade of grey. Phil had began to wonder if they really were gone, if the stars had disappeared with everything else. He hoped they hadn't, that maybe they were just hidden behind the smoke. The stars were linked to some of his fondest memories, and when everything started to go bad he would rely on them to reassure him that everything would be okay. But now he didn't even have that.

As he turned down yet another street, fatigue started to overtake him. He hadn't slept, hadn't eaten, hadn't done anything but run for the past few days, and he wanted to collapse. Nothing looked familiar, his lungs were straining to get air in, his legs felt like they would give way at any moment. But he knew he couldn't slow down. He didn't have time. He needed to get back to Dan, to say goodbye. To say sorry.

It had been months since he left Dan. Everything was falling apart, for the world and for them. Phil was stressed, angry at the world, and he took that anger out on Dan. The fights about the smallest, most meaningless things. The yelling at three in the morning. When Phil wouldn't come out of his room for days at a time. When Phil would snap at Dan any time he felt like he should. When they started sleeping in their own separate rooms again. Phil knew he hurt Dan, and he hated hurting Dan. So one day he left. Got up early in the morning and caught the bus to his parent's house on the other side of the country, leaving Dan with nothing but a note that read: _I love you. _

Another street, nothing to help him. Phil felt like he would have been crying if he hadn't been so tired. It was too dark, he had been running for too long, he could barely keep his eyes open. So when he tripped over a rock in the road and landed face first on the tarmac, he didn't get up. He tried to calm his breathing, and closed his eyes.  
_I can't get back to Dan. I'm lost. There's nothing I can do. Maybe this isn't such a bad place to die.  
_Phil stayed there for an hour, not able to go to sleep, hoping that it would be over soon. He thought of Dan, left alone in his last moments, abandoned by the person who said they would be there at the end. He thought of his parents, who he left without saying goodbye and would never see again. Of his brother, who he never told how much he loved him. Of everyone he had ever known, who would be dead and there was nothing he could do to stop it. Phil was sure he had never felt a bigger emptiness in his stomach.

His eyes flicked open. He had no idea why. The corner of a street sign poked out from a pile of rubble a few inches from his face. He reached out to grab it, wincing as he moved his arm after it being still for so long. The sign slipped out easily, and Phil brought it closer to his face, having trouble reading it in the dark.

As soon as he read it he felt a bigger pain in his chest than before. _This was the right street. _He tried to push himself up, and fell. The he tried again, and fell again.

He cursed himself and tried one more time, this time managing to pull his knees under him and then slowly, slowly, stood back up. Pain shot through every inch of his body but he limped forward. Forward, towards Dan. Now knowing which street he was on he sort of knew where he was, but he wasn't totally sure that he was heading in the right direction. It had been months since he was last here and everything was pretty much destroyed. He made it to the door of one building, which looked like it was seconds from collapsing, and he recognized it. This was it. He looked up at the three stories that were left of the ten-story building. Behind one of those broken windows was Dan. So he went in.

It must have taken him an hour of tripping and almost collapsing until he reached the floor his old apartment used to be. The door was loose on it's hinges, and there was no light inside. He staggered in, and tried calling out, but he couldn't muster up more than a whisper. So he went on. Everything was wrecked, and as Phil looked around he started to doubt himself. First he checked the kitchen, then Dan's room, then the bathroom. No Dan. When he walked into what used to be his old room, and saw there was no Dan, he lost all strength he had left. He sunk to the floor, leaning up against the wall and he looked around. A lot of his room was the same as he remembered it. He hadn't taken much, other than his clothes and electronics and a stuffed lion he couldn't bear to leave behind. But his bed was still there, and it looked almost like it had been kept neat. His posters and pictures were still hanging on the walls. He understood this must have been Dan.

He saw something lying next to him so he picked it up and held it close to his face. It was the note he left Dan. The one that said 'I love you'. It hadn't been crumpled or ripped or written over. It was just there, lying on the floor as if it had been important. He suddenly felt the most guilt and sadness he had ever felt in his life.

Phil started to cry. He didn't sob, he was too weak for that. He didn't even whimper or make a sound. He only cried. Tears rolled down his face and he didn't wipe them away because he didn't feel like he could. They hit his shirt and the paper and he felt like he might die then and there. He was ready for it. So he closed his eyes and waited.

A few minutes later Phil thought he heard footsteps outside the room. He didn't open his eyes or even move. The steps got closer and then stopped. Again he didn't bother to respond in any way. It was just his mind, he thought. He heard someone breathing quickly at the door. He ignored it. He heard someone say his name. He thought it wasn't real.

He heard his name again. He opened his eyes and looked over at the doorway. There was a shadow, he thought. A silhouette of a man. A man who was shaking and tilting his head and looking at him. _Dan, _he thought.

For some reason Phil nodded, trying to reassure this figure in the doorway that he was there. The shadow got closer and sunk down to sit down next to him. There was a long silence and Phil tried to figure out of this was real. He swallowed hard.

"Dan?" He asked in a hoarse whisper.

"Phil?" The man replied.

Phil knew it was Dan, whether it was in his mind or not.

"I'm really sorry." He said.

"I know." Dan replied.

Another long silence followed. It was interrupted by a large crash from outside the window. Neither of them got up. They knew what was coming.

"Dan?" Phil asked again, looking up at the shadow beside him.

"Yeah?" Dan replied.

The whole room shook suddenly. Another crash, but this time louder and closer. Phil forgot what he was going to say. So he kissed Dan, and he knew for sure it wasn't in his mind now, because he could feel him, and he felt realer than anything he had ever felt. And Dan, seemingly surprised at first, kissed back.

The room shook again.

Another crash.

_I love you_.

The ceiling fell.

_I love you. _

The world went black.

_I love-._


End file.
